The navigator

When my bus turned up this afternoon it had two route numbers on it. 251 was on a sign in the window, but the destination board said 265. I wandered up to the bus asked what number it was and found it was indeed the 251 and that the destination board was stuck on 265.

This was the first indication that it was going to be a fun ride home.

As I usually sit up the front of the bus, I'm used to giving drivers directions when they're not familiar with the route. Where this particular driver was different was when he told me this was his first run into the city. I was telling him where to turn and which stops to stop at before we even got out of town. With that wrong number on the destination board, I was also keeping an eye out for familar passengers that didn't realise this was their bus. They're not going to put their hand out for the bus if they don't know it's theirs.

When we got to Buranda, our first stop after leaving the city we stopped because I knew a couple of passengers usually get on there. I could see a lady down the platform that I knew caught the 251, but she hadn't realised it was there. Up I jumped, stuck my head out the door and yelled out, "two five one!" This resulted in two people getting on that wouldn't have and one getting off that thought it was the 265.

Once we left Buranda it was a straight run to Capalaba as the 251 is a limited pickup bus. Getting into Capalaba we discovered that the buzzer didn't work on the bus either. Some people seem to have a problem with yelling out "next stop please!" and assumed that just walking down the aisle was enough to tell the driver they wanted to get off.

There are two stops at Capalaba and the second one is the main one, the interchange. As we pulled in I noticed a guy that usually caught our bus and he was totally oblivious to the fact his bus had arrived. So, once the passengers getting off had all got off I asked the driver to hang on a tic, jumped off the bus, and went and tapped the unaware guy on the shoulder. He had his Ipod plugged in and wouldn't have heard me if I'd yelled out "two five one!" again.

Not far out of Capalaba the bus turns off the main road and goes around the back streets. This is where the drivers that don't know the route too well have the most problems and this is where I usually give the most directions. Not only was I telling him where to turn and where the next stop was, but also the fact that people usually got off at this one, or that one. Hardly anyone was telling the driver they wanted the next stop, because I was doing it for them.

Needless to say, I wasn't only being thanked by the driver today.

When I got off at my stop, I wished the driver good luck and I wondered if anyone else would take over my role for the rest of the journey.

You may be wondering why this driver was doing a route that he didn't know. Well apparently they were down twenty drivers today. I wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that there's a big rugby league game on tonight.

Oh, I got a free ride home today too. The new fangled ticket machine on the bus wasn't working either. Not that that's unusual.